Women's basketball: Julie Seabrook goes out on high note

STILLWATER, Okla. -- Julie Seabrook began her career as a bench player on a struggling team.

She finished it on Sunday as a main cog for a program headed in the right direction.

Seabrook closed her career with the Colorado women's basketball team after Sunday's 78-70 loss to Oklahoma State in the Women's NIT quarterfinals.

Seabrook had 16 points, two away from her career high, and two rebounds. She drained four 3-pointers, tying her career high.

"For her to be our leading scorer in her last game, I think there's something special about that," CU head coach Linda Lappe said on KKZN AM-760 after the game. "She was a tough player to guard tonight and did a lot of things."

It was just the third time this season that Seabrook led the Buffs in scoring. It came on a day when she passed the 500-point mark for her career. She finished with 504 career points and 475 rebounds.

A native of North Vancouver, British Columbia, Seabrook came a long way during her career. During her first two seasons in Boulder, she rarely played under former head coach Kathy McConnell-Miller. The Buffs had back-to-back losing seasons in those years.

In the past two years, however, Seabrook started every game for Lappe. She's the only Buff that has started all 69 games of Lappe's tenure, helping them go 39-30 and make two straight runs to the WNIT quarterfinals.

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"It's been great," Seabrook said. "It's crazy how much things have really changed since I've gotten here and just to see how much our attitudes have changed. Our team is working really hard and hopefully we continue to get better."

This season, Seabrook averaged 7.3 points and 5.2 rebounds.

Cowgirl fans

Prior to this season, Colorado and Oklahoma State were long-time Big 12 rivals. Now that the Buffs are out of the WNIT, they'll root for the Cowgirls, but not just because they are former rivals.

In November, head coach Kurt Budke and assistant Miranda Serna were killed in a plane crash in Arkansas while on a recruiting trip. CU paid tribute to Oklahoma State with a moment of silence at a game in Boulder shortly after the crash. After Sunday's loss, Lappe and Seabrook both remarked at how great Oklahoma State has played in the wake of that tragedy.

"Obviously they've been through a lot this year, so we're going to root for them for the rest of this tournament," Seabrook said.

The Cowgirls, who have been led by new head coach Jim Littell since the tragedy, will face San Diego in the WNIT semifinals on Wednesday in Stillwater. Syracuse and James Madison will square off in the other semifinal.

Pac-12 out

In the WNIT, CU and Washington were the last remaining members of the Pac-12 going into Sunday's quarterfinals. Washington lost at home to San Diego, 58-47. In previous rounds, Washington has knocked out Pac-12 foes Utah and Oregon State.

Pac-12 champion Stanford is still alive in the women's NCAA Tournament. The Cardinal will play in the Elite Eight on Monday against Duke.

Overall, the Pac-12 is 11-3 against non-conference foes during the postseason.

Jeffery doubles up

Jeffery finished her season on Sunday with a triple-double -- just the third in program history.

It was the third consecutive game in which Jeffery had at least a double-double, and she finished with four double-doubles (including Sunday) in six postseason games, counting the Pac-12 Tournament.

Jeffery had 10 double-doubles this season. She's the fourth player in CU history to post 10 double-doubles in one season, joining Lisa Van Goor (three times), Jackie McFarland (twice) and Erin Scholz (once).

Jeffery also has two of the three triple-doubles in program history (also having one on Nov. 27, 2010, against Loyola-Chicago). Sandy Bean has the only other triple-double, doing so on Feb. 16, 1979, against Utah State.

Notable

CU's 15 3-pointers were one shy of the school record of 16, set on Jan. 3, 2004, in a 98-47 win against Buffalo. The only other time the Buffs had 15 was in an 89-73 loss at Nebraska on Feb. 20, 2010. ... Jeffery tied her career high with 10 assists. She now has 358 for her career, moving into sixth place in CU's all-time list. She passed three players on that list -- La Shena Graham, Bean and Kris Holwerda -- on Sunday. ... Ashley Wilson went 6-for-6 at the line. Her previous career highs were four makes and four attempts. ... Lappe was 3-0 in Stillwater as a CU player, but is now 0-2 there as a coach. ... The Buffs have lost six consecutive games to Oklahoma State. The all-time series is knotted at 26-26.

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